Valediction
by shdwanna
Summary: Future fic. Willow ponders a decision, with Xander's help.


TITLE: Valediction (1/1)  
  
AUTHOR: Angel Hungerford  
  
EMAIL: anna@zhadum.com  
  
DISCLAIMER: Still not mine.  
  
FEEDBACK: Is better than chocolate. Really.  
  
DISTRIB: Fanfiction.net, list archives. Otherwise just tell me where, so I can visit.  
  
RATING: PG  
  
PAIRING: W/X  
  
SUMMARY: Future fic. Willow ponders a decision.  
  
She was in the bathroom, brushing her hair and trying not to think. Thinking had always proven her downfall, led her places she didn't want to go. Besides, didn't he say it was a no-brainer? A good thing.  
  
After all, what was keeping them in Sunnydale any more? Buffy was gone, her own fantasies of her best friend being able to retire from slaying, get married, and raise kids ended with a crumpled shape and a vampire's anguished scream. Again. But this time, there was no return for the most gifted Slayer in a hundred years. Everyone was gone, in some form or another: Giles in England; the freak accident that had claimed Tara; Anya choosing vengeance over mortality; hell, even Dawn deciding to go to college in New York. Spike had gone with her. "I promised," he'd told them, boarding the flight just after sunset. "I promised to take care of her."  
  
That left the two of them. Together at the end, as they had been in the beginning.  
  
She still wondered why she'd assumed sexuality was like a switch – straight in high school, she met Tara, the switch suddenly was flipped, oh, gay now. She supposed it was because it was the easiest way to escape the hold he still had on her, despite everything that had happened and everyone else who kept getting between them. If she was gay, she didn't have to love him, wasn't allowed to be attracted to him anymore.  
  
Somehow Willow, netgeek extraordinaire, avoided the whole concept of bisexuality. Now, she liked the idea, the word, the truth of it. Bisexual.  
  
Anything else was betraying someone. If she was gay, then what she'd had with Oz wasn't real, which wasn't fair to him, or her. And how to explain this, now? If she was straight, just experimenting, a college-only lesbian, then the intense bond she'd shared with Tara was somehow betrayed, made less important, and not only was it unfair, it was untrue.  
  
So, bisexual. It was easier because he was, too, so they could occasionally step outside the boundaries of a standard relationship and play with other people. Oddly, since they'd had the long painful conversation about it, about opening up their relationship, neither of them had felt the need to test the agreement. She set the brush down.  
  
"You okay, Wills?"  
  
She turned and gave her husband a smile. "Fine. Just – thinking."  
  
He brushed an errant strand of hair off her cheek, and kissed her. "You think too much."  
  
"I know. But you think it's a good thing? The going, I mean."  
  
"I think it's a great thing." He pulled her to him, turning her so she faced the mirror again. "This," he said, cupping her chin, "is the face of a certified programming genius."  
  
She laughed a little. "I wouldn't go that far."  
  
"Hey, M.I.T. says so, and who'm I to argue with them?" He smiled, the corners of his eyes crinkling a little. "Besides, I've always wanted to live somewhere where there were actual winters."  
  
"Tell me that in six months, when you have to use a shovel to find the car before you can drive to work in the morning," she teased, reaching up to run her fingers through his hair.  
  
"Hey, hey, staying with the positive here. I'm ignoring the fact that you're yanking me from the cozy hamlet I've spent my entire life, the haven of my entire family, thousands of miles away from everyone I've ever met…let me delude myself about the snow, okay?"  
  
"But, Xan, you hate your entire family."  
  
"Yes, and I am SO glad you're taking me to Massachusetts, away from them!"  
  
She was laughing in earnest now. "You big goof. You had me worried for a second, there."  
  
Xander turned her around to face him. "How many times do I have to tell you? I want to go. I think it's great."  
  
"I just – can't help but feel like we're abandoning the Hellmouth."  
  
"Willow. We've talked about this. Giles said…."  
  
"I know what Giles said. But he's not here. We are. And without us…."  
  
"Without us what? Honey, we're just two ordinary people. No Slayer, no vampire, no special powers, no special equipment. We'd just get killed, sooner or later."  
  
"I know, but…"  
  
"It's hard."  
  
"Yeah. I mean, we've looked after Sunnydale for so long, it's hard to let it go."  
  
He pulled her into a hug. "We've done our time, I think. Time to move on."  
  
"All right, then. Away we go."  
  
"Sounds perfect. Bed first, though?"  
  
"Yeah. Bed first." She slipped her hand into his, and led him into the bedroom.  
  
- FIN - 


End file.
